How do I tell my accountant I'm sacking him!

[Normasnorks]

Current accountant is crap.
I suspect my business is just too small for his inflated ego.
He's been happy to take my money, but this year there have been errors made on 3 separate occasions.

The last being yesterday when I went to pay my corporation tax online and found that they hadn't filed my accounts back in October.
When I pointed this out they simply said 'thanks for alerting them' - apparently they had submitted them against the wrong company account number..... No apology or anything! If I hadn't noticed then a fine would've been winging its way to me .

I've found a new accountant to act for me from January, and I need to write to the old, but I can't decide how to write the letter...

Should I just say 'I'm moving my business' or do you think I should take the opportunity to highlight WHY (i.e. all the errors)

The owner is a bit of an arrogant tosser, and I'm worried that they may be unhelpful to the new firm in the transfer process if I send them a slightly snotty letter.

Can someone help me write the opening paragraph - I'm too annoyed to be formal and rational

The only reason I can see for pointing out the problems would be to negotiate a fee discount for last year and THEN move.

Otherwise, just tell them you are moving. If they are members of a professional body they are bound to act professionally in the handover anyway.

If you had incurred a fine because of their error they would have had to pay it for you, that's why they have Professional Indemnity Insurance.

You have checked that your new accountant is a member of an appropriate professional body (see www.ccab.org.uk/) and has PII?

Thanks for reply - yes, new accountant is ICAEW registered, and a friend has been using him for about 4 years.
But I'll check the PII - good point.

In the end I sent existing accountant a fairly formal, to-the-point letter, saying I didn't feel the firm was offering what I needed, and that highlighting the 3 issues.
As I anticipated, I got a fairly curt reply in which he glossed over the issues. He admitted that the Corp Tax thing was an error, but said 'we'd have discovered it eventually I guess' . Still no apology of any sort.

Good riddance....

As an accountant I would expect the clients letter to say

"Following from the matter of my accounts not being filed correctly, I have decided to use a different accountant for all of my affairs with immediate effect.

Their contact details are.....

They will contact you in due course to request correct transfer of information.

Please could you confirm that I do not owe you any money and that all matters will be handed on correctly.

Thank you for your assistance in the past.

Regards"

No need to be gushing.
They would not be if they were telling you to get a new accountant.

I woudl tell them the errors and that's why you won't be using them anymore.